Trump revokes US sanctions on Syria

Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end US sanctions against Syria, which the White House said was a move to support the country’s “path to stability and peace”.

The sanctions, which blocked any foreign financing, were imposed on the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by rebels in December.

The White House said it would monitor the new Syrian government’s actions including “taking concrete steps toward normalising ties with Israel” as well as “addressing foreign terrorists” and “banning Palestinian terrorist groups”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said the move would “lift the obstacle” to economic recovery and open the country to the international community.

However the US has maintained sanctions on Assad and his associates as well as the Islamic State group and Iranian proxies.

Trump said he would lift sanctions on Syria in May, before he met the country’s new president, former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh. The announcement sparked celebrations in the streets of Damascus.

Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which led the overthrow of Assad – was al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until he severed ties in 2016. HTS is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US and UK.

Monday’s executive order directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio “to review” HTS’s designation. It also says that the US wants the new Syrian government to take over responsibility for detention camps in north-eastern Syria where Islamic State prisoners are being held.

Earlier this year, Rubio called for Syria’s transitional authorities to be supported, warning that a failure to achieve economic progress could lead to a “full-scale civil war of epic proportions”.

Ninety percent of Syria’s population were left under the poverty line when the Assad regime was ousted at the end of 13 years of devastating civil war.

Syria’s new leader has promised to protect the country’s ethnic minorities. However, the mass killings of hundreds of civilians from Assad’s minority Alawite sect in the western coastal region in March, during clashes between the new security forces and Assad loyalists, has hardened fears among minority communities.

There have also been deadly clashes between Islamist armed factions, security forces and fighters from the Druze religious minority. And in June at least 25 people were killed in a suicide attack on a church in Damascus.

Ahead of Monday’s signing, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters it Trump was making good on his commitment to support Syria’s stability and peace.

“This is another promise made and promise kept by this president to promote peace and stability in the region,” she added.

The US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack told reporters that cancelling the sanctions regime had been the “culmination of a very tedious, detailed, excruciating process of, how do you unwrap these sanctions.”

“Syria needs to be given a chance, and that’s what’s happened,” he added.

More than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others forced from their homes during former president Assad’s rule.